NORTH WEST PROVINCE — For more than three decades, a severe water supply crisis in the North West province has left residents of Kopela and Delareyville villages enduring daily hardships while fighting for their basic water rights.
Accessing this essential resource has become a grueling daily chore for the communities, with locals frequently seen pushing wheelbarrows to fetch water. An eighty-year-old resident described the situation as a long-standing ordeal that has plagued the area for generations. The lack of reliable infrastructure means that even basic hygiene, such as taking a bath, has become a significant daily challenge for households.
The frustration is echoed by an 83-year-old resident who expressed that many in the community feel entirely neglected by the state. Similarly, in Delareyville village, another 83-year-old resident who relies on a communal tap outside her yard noted that they have been struggling with severe water shortages since the dawn of democracy.
The prolonged lack of infrastructure development has led to mounting anger. Residents are accusing the government of violating their constitutional rights, pointing to abandoned borehole projects and failed contractor interventions. Reports indicate that over R200 million has already been spent on the irregular procurement of these projects, which currently remain incomplete.
In response to the growing backlog, the district municipality has pointed to intervention programs like Operation Bulela Metsi, which aims to tackle these historical service delivery deficits. According to municipal leadership, the operations and maintenance unit has embarked on approximately 17 internally funded projects to address the shortages.
Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality Mayor Khumalo Molefe defended the municipality’s progress, stating that while the use of internal funding caused delays, most of the 17 projects are currently standing at 90 percent completion. He assured the public that the infrastructure is not stalled and is on track to be fully completed by the end of June and July.
However, Mayor Khumalo Molefe highlighted that the primary hurdle preventing immediate completion is a financial dispute with contractors who previously abandoned the sites. The municipality reports that these contractors are now demanding multi-million rand additional payments to return and finish the work.
Due to years of delays, the cost to rectify these projects has ballooned significantly. “It runs into multi-millions,” Mayor Khumalo Molefe explained, noting that the total cost to finalize all abandoned sites could run anywhere from half a billion to a billion rand. Despite the massive financial hurdles, the Mayor emphasized the urgency of the situation, concluding: “Our people need water.”
